I was busy last week, so I forgot to devote some time to my once and future local paper, the Morning Call. Once a bit of a local scandalmonger, the Call has in the past 10 years become a fantastic mid-size paper, breaking some major news and doing in-depth, fair reporting that is often completely misused by state and local authorities.
They've done some truly great work in reporting on a man named Louis DeNaples. DeNaples is the Scranton-area businessman who got a slots license for the Mt. Airy Casino Resort he owns. Here he is, in 2006, happy that he's gotten a slots license:
Turns out Mr. DeNaples has some unsavory business associates. The Call, has done months of great reporting detailing how unsavory, and exactly how bad the gaming board was at, well, doing its job and investigating those associates. It was somewhere between gross negligence and outright conspiracy to give someone a license, and if you want to read a whole bunch of stories on the extent, check this page out.So it's bad. Though I'd like to point out that I, personally, mind this less than most, since I expect that most people in the gambling business will know those who are not, say, ideal son-in-law material. Here at SJS, sleazy industries are expected to come with some sleazy characters. If Mr. DeNaples is a good businessman and can run his Resort to the benefit of the state, then I'm cool with him.
What I am not cool with, however, is attacking reporters. As many of you are aware, SJS has a journalistic history, and maintains a solidarity with those strong enough to stay in the profession I left. Reporters are important, and freedom of the press is cornerstone of our society. People who go after reporters, in my experience, are usually either vindictive, megalomaniacal or outright evil.
Mr. DeNaples has decided to join that fraternity. Not, mind you, because the Call reporters got anything wrong, but because they've screwed up his life. In this, he has some allies. They are the same allies who got him the license in the first place, and then were embarrassed by the stories. So powerful businessman + appointed friends of Ed Rendell = ....
Subpoenas.
So now we're investigating how a grand jury investigation was leaked. Or we're pretending to. For one thing, no one cares. For another, everyone knows how this goes down: Haul reporters in, demand they give up their sources, the reporters say no, the state threatens to throw them in jail.
The call lawyers are looking things over, and are going to point out the tons of legal evidence that establishes a reporter's sources as confidential, and then, I expect, will point out that confidential sources tell us about shady things that taxpayers and citizens deserve to know, and that confidentiality allows that to happen. So getting pissed at the reporters is sort of the opposite of solving problems. Speaking of which, the chair of the gaming board who oversaw all of this moronicism got a nice little severance package of $120,000, as John L. Micek reports. Also, SJS thanks Micek for the shout-out he gave us a few days ago.
I write about this not because there's anything we can do at the moment, but just as a reminder that the media, for all that we beat up on it, does some really good things for really little money, and we still treat them like dirt, largely. Tim Russert wasn't the only newsman or -woman working to make the country better. Next time you want to complain about reporters not doing enough or misquoting something, ask yourself this: Would you go to jail to keep a secret that you heard from a criminal, or even just a real jerk? I know, I know, you're not crazy, and that's why you're not a journalist, but it's worth recognizing that that type of devotion to an idea is a rare and admirable quality just about every print journalist has.
Stay strong, Matt Birkbeck and Christinia Gostomski. As my old Latin teacher, Mr. Hall, would say: Nill illigitimi carborundum.
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